All Those Pretty Lights
by momentary-ecstasy
Summary: This can't be right. You have to be seeing things. Someone spiked your drink again. It's a ghost or a hallucination. You stare right into her eyes until you can't hear anything anymore. You can see her open the door and stand out of the car. You can see her lips forming your name, but you can't hear it. Your eyes flutter before everything goes black.
1. Chapter 1

"What are you thinking about?" Paige asks you as you walk the darkened streets of Rosewood, hand in hand.

You swallow and let your eyes fall from the sky. You shake your head, knowing that Paige won't like the real answer. She's already aggravated about swim practice today where you were once again made captain for the next meet instead of her. "Nothing."

Paige stops walking and huffs, "It was about Maya wasn't it?"

You hate the look in her eyes. The disappointment and flare of anger. You nod guiltily hoping the truth is better than a lie, "It's just... stars remind me of her. She used to always make up constellations and," You smile remembering nights of laying in your backyard and just looking at the sky. "Some of them were funny."

When Paige drops your hand, you know that you're in trouble. She jams her hands into her pockets and kicks at hte ground.

You sigh. Sometimes being with Paige can be so frustrating. Generally she's a great girlfriend, but there are times when you just need to be in the past for a little while and Paige never understands, "I can't just stop thinking about her."

"Obviously," Paige spits, the flare of anger turning into a full on inferno.

"What do you want me to do?" you ask, your voice growing in volume and pitch. "Just forget about my first real love? Forget the girl that I was in love with that was murdered?"

"I just want you to have some time to think about me," Paige demands. She takes a menacing step toward you and her eyes narrow. "All you do is hang out with your friends and think about Maya. Even when you kiss me, I bet you're thinking about her. That bitch is -"

"Don't call her that!" you snap, yelling at Paige. You drop your arms and square your shoulders. "You didn't know her!"

Paige's eye go dark and her anger boils over, somewhere it hadn't gone in a long time and she shoves your. Your mouth drops open in surprise as your feet scramble to keep you upright.

Before you can react in anyway, someone comes out of nowhere and pushes Paige away from you. Your girlfriend tumbles into someone's front yard, her hand sprawled out on the grass.

There's a hood over the person's head that seems to come from a hoodie, tucked under a leather jacket. The jeans are plain and the boots are just black with two buckles on each side. Your heart races with the realization that this could be A.

When you look down at Paige, her eyes are huge and glued to the person's face. The hooded figure leans down, grabbing Paige's jacket with black-gloved hands. It looks like the person in the hood is telling Page something to which the girl nodded frantically. She glances over your defender's shoulder with terror in her eyes before she scrambles to her feet and runs off down the street at a full on sprint.

It all happened so fast that you almost let the figure get away without saying anything. You take a step closer to try to figure out what the hell is going on when the person in the hood starts walking across the street.

"Wait!" you yell, hopping off of the sidewalk, onto the street as well. It made sense that the Mona version of A had saved Hanna. You can't think of any version of A that would want to save you.

As you get close, you get a better look at the person. You decide that it's definitely female because of the cut of the jeans and the curve of the hips. The tailor of the jacket also lend to that theory.

Just as you get close enough to reach out and grab her, she takes off running toward the woods at the end of the street.

"Hey!" you yell again. "Wait!" You take off after her. It's easy for you to run after her because of your sneakers and you're hoping that they'll be enough of an advantage over her boots to catch up.

The chase moves into the forest where the girl doesn't stop no matter how much you plead as you run. She weaves through the trees and bushes until you're pretty sure that you not only lost her, but are lost yourself. You stop and listen for any noise that might indicate a person in the woods.

When you don't hear anything, you run a hand through your hair and try to catch your breath. You scan the woods around you one more time, probing all the shadows in the trees. Nothing really looks out of the ordinary until you see a flash of light to your right. It disappears and come back. You take off toward the light, but the closer you get the easier it is to see that the light is just the moon reflecting off of the lake.

You didn't realize that you had run this far out and look around the rim of the lake. You can get back home if you can just find the boathouse. Luckily you spot it just a few hundred yards around the curve of the lake. Maybe the walk will help you clear your head.

Your eyes lightly graze the ground as you slowly make your way to the boathouse. When you look up to see how much farther you have to go, you hear something. You halt all movement to get a better listen. It sounds like talking. Your eyebrows furrow and you see what's making the noise. Just inside the doors of the boathouse, you can see the back of the hooded girl taking to Nate. He leans down and says, "You weren't supposed to come back."

The girl shakes her head, her voice dissipating before it gets to you. You bend your knees and creep closer, trying to get a better look or at least hear this girl. Maybe you'd recognize her voice. Nate glances in your direction and you hop behind a tree just in time. You shift your weight from one foot to another. Is Nate working with A? You always had your reservations about him, but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt because he is - was Maya's cousin.

"You sent me here to look after her," Nate's voice meets your ears and you take that as an indicator that he isn't looking in your direction anymore. You see that he is in fact looking down at the girl and puts his hands on his hips. He sighs deeply and asks, "And I'm here. Do you know who A is yet?"

Your eyes grow wide. Nate knows about A? This girl knows about A? If they both know about A, are there more people? Why do they know about A and why are they trying to find out who it is?

You shake your head at yourself. It doesn't matter anymore. Someone else knows about A and you want to know whatever those two know.

Your pace quickens as you near the boathouse and you feel your heart jump into your throat when you break out into a sprint only about ten yards from the boathouse deck. You can see Nate spot you and he tells the girl. The girl doesn't even look your way as she goes farther into the boathouse. Nate stands at the door and stops you before you barrel inside.

"Emily stop," he holds you at the doorway as you see the back of the girl run out the front door.

"Who is that?" you demand, still struggling to get away.

He keeps you at bay as the front door slams shut. "I'll explain if you stop. It's complicated."

You do something you rarely resort to and use violence. One elbow to the stomach and Nate's instantaneous reaction is to let go of you. You push past him and ran through the boathouse. You throw open the door and run out the front.

Nate's car is parked out front and you can see the back of the hood of the girl in the driver's seat, starting the car. You run as hard as you can and jump in front of the car. It starts moving, but jerks to the stop right before it rolls into you.

You place your hands on the hood and look right into the windshield. Then you blink because what you see can't be what you really see. Your eyes meet the brown ones that you loved since you first saw them. You feel your arms and legs start to give out.

This can't be right. You have to be seeing things. Someone spiked your drink again. It's a ghost or a hallucination. You stare right into her eyes until you can't hear anything anymore. You can see her open the door and stand out of the car. You can see her lips forming your name, but you can't hear it. All you can hear is a harsh pounding in your ears.

Your eyes flutter before everything goes black.


	2. Chapter 2

"What happened?"

"I found her. At the boathouse. She was mumbling something about Maya and then she passed out."

You can hear things, but it is really hard to open your eyes. After a few seconds you force them open and see yourself in a hospital. The feeling is all too familiar. You see your mom at the foot of the bed and Nate standing next to her with his arms crossed.

You sit up quickly, remembering what happened before you passed out. "Where is she?" you demand of Nate.

He gives you a look of confusion. To you, it seems too exaggerated to be true. "What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," you throw the blankets off of you and try to get out of the bed. Your mom is pulling you back down into the bed.

"Emily stop it," your mom pulls the blankets back up your torso.

"No," your eyes are fixed on Nate who now looks more scared than anything. "Tell me where she is!"

"Emily what's going on?" you hear Spencer ask as she, Hanna, and Aria run into the room, heels clicking on the tile.

You ignore them and keep trying to get out of the bed, this time escaping your mother's grasp and getting off of the bed on the opposite side of her. "Where is Maya?!" You scream at him in frustration. He knows and he's playing dumb. You need to know.

"Emily?" Hanna places a soft hand on your elbow, "What are you talking about?"

"I saw them," you point to Nate, knowing that your friends will believe you. "I saw Nate talking to Maya at the boathouse. She's alive! And he won't tell me where she is!"

Aria looks you over and you can see it in her eyes. She doesn't believe you. Her eyes stop on your head. You reach up and touch your head. There's a large bandage on your head.

"I'm not crazy," you look around the room. You see your pants on the end of the bed and pull them on.

"Emily stop," your mom pleads with you.

"Yeah remember when you thought you saw Alison?" Spencer asks gently. She tries to subtly block your exit.

You know you're not crazy. You're going to the boathouse. You're going to find Paige and ask her what Maya said. Then you're going to find her. With or without Nate's help.

"Emily c'mon," Nate moves behind Spencer in front of the door as you shuck off your hospital gown, readjust your bra and pull on your shirt.

"Don't talk to me," you glare at him as you pull your sneakers on. "I saw her and you're making everyone think I'm crazy. I saw her. She almost hit me with your car. She said my name. Maya's alive and I'm going to find her."

You shove him out of the way and storm out of the hospital with everyone you know following you, trying to get you to stop. You run across the street and glance behind you. Nate's gaining on you. You start moving to a trot and then spot someone who you think will help you.

In her car, at a stoplight, Cece is fixing her lip-gloss. You run up to her car and open the passenger's door. As you sit down she looks over at you.

"Angry mob chasing you?" she asks, gesturing to the crowd that followed you.

"Can you just drive?" you ask her, locking the door as Nate gets closer.

Cece grins and steps on the gas, running the red light. "You're fun. So where to?

You close your eyes and you can see Maya. You can see her eyes in more detail now that you have time to stop and think about it. She looks tired. She looked scared, but she looked so, so tired. You have to find her.

You give Cece directions to Paige's house and instructions to keep the car running and to call you if she sees Nate or your mom. You feel like you can reason with your friends or they're humor your even if they think you're crazy. Nate and your mom are the only ones that will outright stop you.

You run up to the front door and knock. When you take a step back, you see the curtain move and know that Paige is in there. Her parents are gone for a weekend and she's the only one with her house key. You bang on the door and call through it, "Paige, open the door!"

When nothing happens you bang on the door again, "I saw her too! Open the door!"

After a moment, the locks click back and the door slowly opens until just Paige's face is visible. "You saw who?"

"I saw Maya," you cross your arms.

Paige's eyes grow wide and she swallows. But she doesn't say anything so you go on. "What did she say to you?"

"She just told me that if I ever did anything to you...like that again, I'd be sorry. Then she told me to run," Paige opens the door wider and sputters out, "So - I - I thought I saw a ghost or it was... I'm so sorry."

You don't have time for Paige's apologies anymore. You wave it off and ask, "Did she say anything else? Like where she was going or where she was staying?"

Paige shakes her head. Then she steps outside, "Look Emily, I'm sorry I lost my temper."

You just shake your head and turn around, hopping down the stairs two at a time and hustle back to Cece's car. You have to stay moving so no one can catch you. They all think you're nuts so you'll probably end up with a room right next to Mona's at the sanitarium.

"So, what's going on?" Cece asks as you weave through the neighborhoods of Rosewood.

You've been staring out the window and thinking, not even paying attention to Cece. You've been trying to figure out where Maya could be. You take a deep breath, "You know Nate's cousin? Maya? The one who... died?"

"The one you dated?" she asks.

You don't remember telling her that so you look at her.

"It's a small town," Cece shrugs.

You should have known. You sigh. "Yeah. Well, I saw her. Nate was talking to her at the boathouse. Paige saw her too so I'm not crazy. I just... I need to know where she went and why she left."

"Well everyone in town knows her face right?" Cece asks as she turns down a less than friendly road. "So she's probably somewhere where no one else goes. And Nate has to take her food and stuff."

"But Nate asked her why she was here which means he didn't know." you explain. It is getting eerie how easy it is to talk to Cece. Just like Alison. "Maybe we could try the boathouse?"

"Just show me where."


	3. Chapter 3

You sit on the dock with your feet in the water and your forehead resting against the lower rail. You don't know what to believe anymore. Maybe you are crazy. Maybe you hallucinated it all.

You watch the water ripple as you move your legs. You take a deep breath and close your eyes. Maybe you did hit your head too hard. Maybe Alison and Maya are together, floating around in your head.

You hear a creak of the old wood in the boathouse. You look up but you don't see anyone. Maybe that was your imagination too. You have to know though. Whoever it is, Nate or Paige or A or whoever you don't care. There's so much you don't know right now. You just need to know one thing.

"If you're going to kill me," you call, "Or try to drown me or whatever." that was a low blow in case it was Paige. You inhale to finish, "Just get it over with because they're about to put me in the nut house anyway."

"You're not crazy," a soft voice floats around you in the surreal setting.

"Really?" you keep staring at the water, ignoring the hallucination or whatever it is that just sat down next to you. "Because I'm talking to a dead girl."

"Emily," she says your name just like you remember it. You have to look now. You imagine her in your mind wearing that tan knit hat you loved on her. If you look and see her wearing it you really are crazy.

You turn your head toward her and open your eyes. Next to you in jeans, a black hoodie and a leather jacket is Maya. She's sitting with her legs crossed. Maybe your crazy is smarter than you.

Her head is tilted and she's playing with the zipper on her boot. "I'm not dead."

You shake your head and years fill your eyes. You're starting to really believe that you're crazy. "there's a body."

"I don't know who that is, Emily, but I need to explain," Maya says in a low voice. "There's this person. I don't know who it is or whatever, but they started threatening me. I didn't take it really seriously at first because I'm like the free spirit, hippy, bi chick in town and some people don't like that. But then they started getting worse. The threats started to be made at you. They even sent me a picture of you sleeping with a huge knife on the pillow next to you." She takes a deep breath. "Then... I tried to outsmart A. Find out who he is- "

"A texts me too," you interrupt her. You turn to look at her and you're starting to feel like she's real. You're not Aria. You can't come up with things like this.

"Really?" her eyes widen and she leans forward. "Has A threatened you?"

"With different things yeah," you nod, "But never to kill me."

Maya licks her lips. "Well after the knife picture I got spooked and tried to figure out who it was. That was apparently the wrong move because the next night there's a dead girl in your backyard. A warned me. I didn't even stay to look. I just left. I didn't want that to happen to you." Maya sits up straighter. "I've done some messed up things in my life, but... I didn't want any of that to hurt you."

You pull your feet out of the water and turn to her. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Maya shrugs. "A had already proved that he could get into my room without me knowing and planting joints in my stuff. And he got into your room at night. A said if I told he'd hurt you. Plus I kinda think that he has people with the police and medical examiner's office. Someone should have known that wasn't me."

"Why do you think A's a guy?" you ask. You want to as her so many more things, but you can't seem to ask them.

She looks out over the water. "I don't really. I just... it's a hunch."

After a few moments of silence, you ask, "You asked Nate to come out here and watch me?"

Maya nods, adjusting her jacket. "He was like my brother. I told him everything and he enrolled in Hollis because he was on his way to college anyway. I thought if I figured out who A was that I could come back, but everything is a dead end."

"Why don't you come back now?" you ask, reaching out and touching her for the first time on her leather covered arm.

She holds your eyes for a minute before sadly shaking her head. "I can't risk you getting hurt."

"But we can stick together," you plead. You squeeze her arm. Feeling it under your hand is reassuring. "Spencer, Aria, and Hanna all know about A. And so does Nate."

"I can't," she places her hand on top of yours and it's the first time you've felt her skin in over a year.

"If I know you're here then A has to know," you move your hand so that you can hold her hand. Then you take her other hand. "A knows where everyone is. Plus Paige, Cece, and Nate know you're alive."

"Yeah, that Paige thing was not my finest hour," Maya runs her thumb over your knuckles and brings the back of your hand up to her lips to kiss. "I just don't like the way she treats you. You're better than that Emily."

"I didn't think she was like that," you look down, suddenly ashamed that you went back to her after everything she put you through. You lace your fingers through Maya's and catch her eyes. "Looks like you came back at just the right time."

"You know I can't stay," she moves closer to you and turns to that you can put your head on her shoulder like you used to out here on the dock.

It feels so comfortable and safe. You wrap your arms around her middle and just breathe her in. "If A knows you're back, then he might come after me anyway. A already tried to kill me once."

"When?" she asks.

"That one night of the dance, it wasn't an accident that I got locked in a barn with a running car," you shake your head.

You feel her arms hold you tighter. She kisses the side of your head. "You've been through so much, Em. I can't stay. It'll just make things worse."

"Or it could make them better," you hold on to her because you don't want her to leave ever again. With Maya things were great. You had some fights, but they were always small and ended quickly. "You and Nate are two more people that know about A. So it's not just the four of us anymore. Six brains are better than four. If you stay, you could save me."

"I could hurt you as well," Maya sighs.

Tears form in your eyes. A has really found a way to destroy your life and everything you love. "Please stay. I need you."

"Emily, I -" she's interrupted by the chirping of a cell phone. You check yours and Maya pulls hers out.

"Damn it," Maya curses. "I shouldn't have come back."

You take her hand that is holding her phone and look at it. A text message is pulled up. Welcome back to Rosewood. Too bad Emily won't be around long enough to enjoy it.

You read it over again. The fear that you used to have is gone. You're just too tired. You're tired of the games and the threats. "I don't care."

"Emily, this is your life," Maya pockets her phone and brushes your hair away from your face.

You look up at her, into her eyes so she can understand exactly what you mean. "A has taken everything from me. A took you and took every feeling I've ever had of being safe. I used to be close to my mom, but I'm keeping this huge secret from her and it's driving us apart. This isn't a life anymore."

"Even if I did stay, I can't go outside," Maya tells you. "I can't do anything during the day."

"But I need you to stay," you tell her again. "Maybe whatever you and Nate know, put together with everything me and my friends know could stop A. We've all lost so much."

By some crazy miracle, you convince her to let you have the girls and Nate meet you in the boat house. She closes all the doors with you two inside and insists that you sit away from the doors and windows while she keeps watch.

"Your hair has gotten longer," you mention as she stares out the window.

She smiles and turns to you. "I haven't had time to get it cut."

"Where have you been?" you wrap your arms around yourself. Now that Maya's not holding you and you forgot your jacket at the hospital, you realize it's really cold.

Maya, of course, immediately notices and shrugs off her jacket. "I've been doing a lot of camping. Since I'm technically dead, no one's going to rent me a place to stay or give me a job. And if I use a fake name, there's no history of that person ever existing." She steps over to you and holds her jacket out for you to put your arms into.

Once the jacket is on you feel warming and safer like Maya's still holding you. She smiles at you and kisses your cheek before resuming her post at the door.

When headlights appear, you stand up as well. You stand right behind Maya and look out the glass of the door. "It's Spencer's car."

Then you see Nate's car pull up behind it. He gets out and all the other girls close their doors and start walking toward you.

Maya turns and looks at you. "Do you want to maybe give them a little heads up before they see me?"

You nod and open the door as they get close. Maya moves to the other side of the boathouse and sits down.

"Emily, are you okay?" Hanna asks immediately, "We've been looking for you all over the place."

"I'm fine," you tell them and put your hands in the pockets of Maya's jacket. You feel her phone in the pocket and a piece of paper in the other, but you ignore them and take a deep breath. "I wasn't lying earlier. I'm not crazy."

"About Maya?" Aria asks, looking to Spencer.

Your eyes find Spencer who you know is the most skeptical. Then you see Nate who looks panicky. "She's inside."

Nate moves first, past you. Then the girls follow. You close the door and turn around to see that Maya isn't where she was sitting. You look frantically around the boathouse for her. She was just here. She's real. You're wearing her jacket.

"Emily," you hear Maya say from the back door of the boathouse. She's standing in the doorway, looking at you. "I was gonna...take off again, but...I can't do that to you again."

"Oh my god," Hanna blurts out from the other side of the boathouse.

"You're dead," Spencer narrowed her eyes at Maya, "We saw the autopsy report."

"You what?" you ask Spencer. They didn't tell you about that.

"We didn't want to upset you," Aria's eyes flicker from you to Maya. "How is that possible?"

"Someone fixed the records," Spencer explains, "Garrett changed things in the police station. We got into the medical examiner's office. We could have easily changed all kinds of files."

"Why did you leave?" Aria asks Maya.

"It was A," Maya bites her bottom like and steps inside, closing the door again. "A told me that if I didn't leave town, he'd hurt Emily. Then there was a dead girl in Emily's backyard... I couldn't risk it."

"Why'd you come back now?" Spencer crosses her arms confrontationally.

You move to Maya's side to show support. You don't want Spencer to scare her off again. Maya gives you a faint smile and turns to the group. "I asked Nate to watch Emily for me, but sometimes I came back to see if I could find out more about A. I always check on Emily and tonight, Paige pushed Emily. I lost control and had to get Paige away from her."

"Paige pushed you?" Hanna's eyes get huge when she looks at you. "I'll kill her."

"I think I already scared her half to death," Maya tries to lighten the mood although you know she's probably still angry about it.

"Then I chased her through to woods to find out who she was and found her here," you step in. "With Nate. Then I fainted."

You all sit around for another hour, talking about what you know about A. You find that Maya has found out basically what you have on her own which is still next to nothing. Maya sighs after explaining everything, "I just - I feel so helpless you know? I don't feel like I can control anything anymore."

"Well we're all in this together now," Hanna says. You're pretty sure it's more to comfort you than it is to comfort Maya.

"I still don't like staying here," Maya shakes her head. Her eyes meet yours and you know that she doesn't want you to get hurt.

"No, no," Spencer shakes her head the way she does when she gets an idea, "This could work for us." She looks at Maya, "You've been hiding for a year and apparently no one has found you yet so you're good at it. We have school and jobs and extra curricular actives. Having you and Nate with us could make it harder on A. You can move around at night and we can move around during the day. A can't keep up with all of us if we're all active at different times."

"Assuming A is one person," Nate interjects. "A could be a whole group of people."

"But this will still make them work harder," Spencer uses her hands to make her point. "The more we make them work, the harder it is for them."

"I'm in," Maya nods. Your eyes shoot to her. You didn't think that it would be this easy to get her to stay. She sees you looking and takes your hand. "Now that I put you in danger by coming back, I have to stay here and protect you."

"Where are you going to stay?" Hanna asks.

"The lake house?" Spencer offers. "It's not too far out and there's no one there."

You immediately don't like that idea and neither does Maya because she's shaking her head. You decide to voice your objection first, "It's too far out and we already know that A has been there and can get in."

"The barn," Spencer snaps as her idea comes out. "It's in my backyard. It's down the street from Emily and my parents are almost never home. No one goes in there, but me since Melissa moved out. I told them I was going to move in there anyway."

Maya looks at you, silently asking if that's okay. You nod. You'd rather have her hide in your room, under your bed or whatever, but you know that's a bad idea. Of the three of your friends, your mom is the most likely to go into your room.

"So," Nate takes a deep breath. "What's the plan? What do we need to do first?"


End file.
